Missing Tooth: Dental Bridge or Implants?

The missing tooth should be filled, or it will cause tooth displacement and cause tooth alignment.

With the exception of the last wisdom tooth, if there is a missing tooth, the tooth at the back of the missing tooth will be tilted forward. If the missing tooth is left unfilled for a long time, the upper and lower teeth at the front and back of the missing tooth will begin to move.

Options for missing teeth reconstruction

When a tooth is missing, there are three ways to restore the tooth to its normal function:

  1. The implant

  2. The bridge

  3. Movable dentures

Each has its advantages and disadvantages

Preparation time (from fast to slow) bridge > movable denture > implant

Costs (less to more) denture > bridge > implant

Degree of aesthetics (from beauty to ugliness) implant > bridge > movable denture

Life span (from long to short) implant > bridge > movable denture

Can withstand the bite force (from large to small) implant > bridge > movable denture

Implants

The advantage of dental implant is that it does not need to affect the adjacent good tooth, and the artificial tooth root can be directly inserted into the bone drill hole in the missing part of the tooth, and the denture can be loaded after the healing of the artificial tooth root and bone for 4-6 months. The bite force load of the implant can be the same as that of a normal tooth, so it's ok to eat a steak with guano. If the implant is well maintained and the design and material of the denture are good, it can be expected to be used for 20 to 30 years.

The downside of implants is that they take longer, are more expensive, and the surgery can be scary.

The life of the implant varies from 5 to 30 years.

Bridge

The advantage of bridge is that it can be made quickly, which can be finished in about a week. They are less expensive than implants, look good and last longer, and have about the same bite force as normal teeth.

The disadvantage of dental bridge is that it has to remove a layer of enamel from the adjacent tooth where the tooth is missing. If the bridge becomes loose due to too much bite force in the future, after the adhesive dissolves, saliva will infiltrate into the denture and cause abutment tooth decay, which will be caused by tooth extraction.

Abutment teeth on both sides of the bridge cannot be used as bridge support teeth if they are in poor health (too short root, periodontal disease).

The service life of bridge varies from 5 to 12 years.

Dentures

Removable dentures are cheap, take about 2 to 4 weeks to make, and are easy to remove and clean.

Movable denture disadvantage is not beautiful, not very hard to bite food, pressure to the gums may have pain.

The service life of movable denture is about 5~8 years.